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Book 7
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Confessions, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Faith and Conversion
Sin and Salvation
Interpreting the Bible
God, Goodness, and Being
Time, Eternity, and the Mind
Summary
Analysis
[1] Augustine says he will now tell how God broke the “chains” that bound him. At this point in his life, Augustine believed firmly in God and in the truth of the Bible, but his life was a mess. He was no longer ambitious in his career, but he was still stuck “in the bonds of woman’s love,” and this stopped him from committing to the Church. He decided to visit a devout old man named Simplicianus, Ambrose’s spiritual mentor, for help.
While Augustine has essentially figured out what he believes by now, that isn’t enough for him to be a Christian—he has to commit his whole life to the church, and for him, that means giving up his propensity to lust. The language he uses, of “chains” and being in “bonds,” suggests that his will needs to be broken in some way.
Themes
[2] When Augustine described his wanderings, Simplicianus was glad that Augustine had read the Platonists (in whom “God and his Word are constantly implied”) instead of other, error-riddled philosophers. As an example of humility, he told Augustine the story of Victorinus, the renowned rhetoric professor who had translated the Platonists into Latin and who decided to be baptized in his old age. [4] Augustine remarks that, due to their pride, those in positions of power make unlikely converts; so, the Church’s rejoicing is all the greater when someone like Victorinus becomes a Christian.
Simplicianus followed Ambrose as Bishop of Milan, and Victorinus, the Christian convert whose story he tells Augustine, was a highly cultured and accomplished North African rhetorician. So, Simplicianus’s choice of example for Augustine is a very intentional one—Victorinus was at the top of his field and didn’t have anything to gain socially by embracing Christianity. Simplicianus suggests that Augustine must find the same kind of humility in order to convert. Again, too, Augustine’s ability to perceive Christian ideas in more academically recognized writings like those of the Platonists is not unique in late antiquity.
Themes
[5] Hearing Victorinus’s story, Augustine longed to follow his example. But he felt like he was being torn apart by two different wills: his desire to serve God and his lust. He explains that giving in to lust formed a habit, and when he didn’t resist that habit, habit became necessity. Even though he was convinced that serving God was the right path, he battled inertia and an ongoing enslavement to his sin.
Themes
[6] Augustine will now confess how God released him from this slavery to sin. Augustine had been attending church whenever his workload permitted. One day, Alypius and Augustine’s friend Ponticianus visited them, noticed Augustine’s interest in the Bible, and told them the story of Antony, an Egyptian monk, and the story of two of Ponticianus’s friends, who had been suddenly converted to the monastic life upon reading Antony’s story for themselves. [7] As Augustine listened to Ponticianus, God forced him to face his own wickedness. He thought back over the past 12 years of studying philosophy, chasing lust, and dabbling in the Manichaean religion. All this time, Augustine had told himself that he was postponing his commitment to Christianity because he had no specific goal toward which to direct his life. Now, the example of Ponticianus’s two friends weighed on Augustine’s conscience.
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[8] After Ponticianus left, Augustine had an emotional outburst, shocking Alypius: Augustine asked what was wrong with the two of them, that despite all their learning, they had not followed in the footsteps of Ponticianus’s friends and given up the world’s pleasures. Overwhelmed and wrestling with his soul, Augustine retreated to the garden of the house where he and Alypius stayed.
Themes
[9] Augustine ponders the fact that when the mind commands the body to do something, the body obeys at once, but when the mind commands itself to do something, the mind resists—even though the mind could not make that command in the first place if it did not will the thing commanded. He concludes that this is because the thing commanded is not fully willed. So it is possible for the mind to have two wills—both to will to do something and to will the opposite.
Themes
[10] Observing this phenomenon, some, like the Manichees, have claimed that the two wills spring from two minds of opposing natures—one good and one evil. But Augustine believes that his conflicted will did not spring from two warring natures within him, but from “Adam, [his] first father.” [11] This is why Augustine suffered in suspense; even as he crept closer to a decision, his “lower instincts” kept a firm hold, trying to convince him he couldn’t live without the “paltry inanities” he’d have to give up if he became a Christian. Nevertheless, “the voice of habit was very faint” by this time, and beautiful “Continence […] modestly beckoned.” Alypius stayed by Augustine’s side in the garden while Augustine struggled internally.
[12] Finally, Augustine left Alypius and sat down under a fig tree so that he could weep and pray in solitude. Suddenly, he heard a child’s singsong voice repeating the phrase, “Take it and read, take it and read.” Augustine recalled no such words being part of any children’s game. He decided the child’s words must be a divine command to pick up and read his Bible. He recalled that Antony had been converted instantly by hearing a similar command in church. He rushed back to Alypius, grabbed his Bible, and opened it at random to the passage: “Not in revelling and drunkenness, not in lust and wantonness, not in quarrels and rivalries. Rather, arm yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ; spend no more thought on nature and nature’s appetites.” He didn’t need to read any further. Immediately, “light […] flooded into my heart” and doubt disappeared.
Now calm, Augustine told Alypius what had happened. Alypius read the passage for himself and, a little beyond it, found a verse that he felt applied to himself. He decided to join the church without undergoing distress like Augustine’s. They told Monica what had happened, and she was overjoyed that her prayers had been answered and her dream had come true.
Themes
